A reader asks: Wouldn't the Greek Orthodox church be blocked?

A comment appended to our midday mosque wrap-up noted a possible paradox in Carl Paladino’s support for the construction of a replacement for the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church: Paladino’s plan to establish a war memorial district around the site of the attacks would bar all new houses of worship from the area — because if you let one of ’em in, you’ve gotta let ’em all in.

CapCon: Wouldn’t the construction of the Greek Orthodox Church be blocked under the no-new-houses-of-faith rule that would pertain in the 9/11 War Memorial District?

Caputo: St. Nicholas is an historic church where Greek Orthodox parishioners have been worshipping on that site for many, many years. The Ground Zero Mosque is still just a planned slap-in-the-face of all Americans. Services have been held recently in the condemned building only through fast-tracked short cuts of the Bloomberg Administration. That’s so dissimilar it’s like comparing apples and telephone poles.

CapCon: But wouldn’t the construction of St. Nicholas be blocked under the rules Carl laid out for the War Memorial District? Either it will or it won’t.

Caputo: No. Sites like St. Nicholas which existed before the Islamists attacked would be grandfathered. If a mosque or any other structure were destroyed that fateful day, it would be just as wrong to block reconstruction. The fact that Bloomberg, Paterson and their cronies are impeding reconstruction of St. Nicholas makes the mosque slap sting all the more. Their heads are clearly stuffed in dark and dank places.

CapCon: So does that mean that sites previously being used as places of worship would be allowed under the War Memorial District rules?

Caputo: Carl believes grandfathering pre-existing properties is the only fair way to write the rules. These rules would be written as part of the guidelines of the War Memorial by a wider representation of New Yorkers than just Carl.

CapCon: But isn’t there a problem with that, considering that the Park51 backers are already having services in the former Burlington Coat Factory? So the Greek Orthodox Church could build a new church on a different site but the Park51 backers couldn’t keep holding services at a building that they own? Wouldn’t you have to grandfather them in as well?

Caputo: Sites that existed before the attack should be grandfathered, not conspired insults to the families of all the murdered Americans. And these services in the condemned building — where did they get the permission [to] occupy the building, and under what circumstances? The place hasn’t even been completely searched for remains from the attack and yet the Bloomberg administration clears them for worship? It all smells to high Heaven, I don’t care what you worship.

CapCon: Does Carl have plans to press the city to block them from having services in the current building?

Caputo: No, journalists should be looking into the permitting processes that were short-cutted to grant the mosque a Certificate of Occupancy. We’ve heard local activists are already doing this on their own so we won’t duplicate their efforts. Carl will stop construction of the Ground Zero Mosque in the first days of his administration — that is a promise.